Stories of Survival

In February 2005, Sarah Brady was nine months pregnant with her first child and engaged to be married. She was five days overdue and doctors expected her to give birth any day.

While awaiting her baby's arrival, Sarah received an unexpected phone call from a woman who said her name was "Sarah Brody." The woman said one of Sarah's baby gifts had been delivered to her by accident and that there must have been a mix-up with their baby registries. The woman told Sarah she was also nine months pregnant.

Sarah drove to the woman's house to pick up her gift. Inside the box she found baby bottles, a stuffed animal and other items that were on her registry...but there was no indication of who sent the package. The woman said her husband had misplaced the air bill that came with the package.

Later that same day, Sarah received a second call from the woman saying that UPS had delivered another one of Sarah's gifts. This time, the two women chatted on the phone for an hour. "I just suspected that she was a very lonely pregnant woman," Sarah says. "I felt very sorry for her." That night, Sarah told her fiancé that she may have made a new friend.

The next morning, Sarah drove back to the woman's house to retrieve her package. Once again, the woman said the air bill was missing and insisted that Sarah stay and help her look for it. When the two women walked into the bedroom, Sarah noticed an asthma inhaler on the nightstand. "Why I looked at it, why I saw it, I'll never know," Sarah says. "But it said 'Katie Smith.' And that's when I knew at that point something was definitely wrong."